Jim O Brien

Watching Harbor College baseball games this season without Jim O'Brien pacing in front of the Seahawks' dugout will seem strange. The legendary coach retired in May after winning three state community college baseball championships and 11 conference titles in 15 years at Harbor. Despite O'Brien's departure, expectations are high for Harbor. O'Brien's successor is 28-year-old Tony Bloomfield, a former player and assistant under O'Brien.

South Bay community college teams saved the best performances for last during the 1989-90 athletic year. Harbor College's baseball team finished 51-5 and won its third state title under Coach Jim O'Brien, who resigned as coach after the season. He will remain as the school's athletic director. Left-hander John Ingram, who attended Leuzinger High, won the championship game against Chabot for an 8-0 record.

Less than 24 hours after leading Harbor College to its third state baseball title, Coach Jim O'Brien announced his retirement at a press conference Wednesday. The 52-year-old coach made the decision after his finest season in 15 years as Harbor's coach. Not only did the Seahawks (51-5) set a state record for victories, they also went undefeated in the playoffs (8-0) and the Southern California Athletic Conference (20-0). Wednesday's announcement was not a surprise.

For Jim O'Brien, all oil spills have just one thing in common: they happen at night or on weekends. O'Brien, a roving oil-pollution trouble-shooter hired to coordinate the Huntington Beach cleanup, was summoned at 10:30 Wednesday night from Lake Shore, La. He was on a plane for Los Angeles at 5:30 the next morning. With 200 spills under his belt, O'Brien is recognized as one of the nation's leading cleanup specialists.

Harbor baseball Coach Jim O'Brien is almost half way to the national junior college victory record. On Tuesday he earned his 400th in 14 years when his playoff-bound team trounced East L.A., 11-6. The winningest active junior college baseball coach is Demi Mainieri at Miami Dade College North of Florida with 852 career wins. O'Brien sees Tuesday's victory more as a conference triumph than an important event in his career because it clinched the Southern California Athletic Conference title for the Seahawks, who are 13-2-1 in the SCAC (24-13-1 overall)

Jim O'Brien paced anxiously on the grass as he watched his young Harbor College baseball team whip Compton College in a conference game. He yelled at his center fielder, who was standing near the wall, until veins popped out of his neck. Then he clenched both fists after sophomore right-hander Chris Garrett threw a fastball down the middle of the plate for a strike. "Hey, that's too much! Bring it in a little! What are you doing back there? Bring it up! Bring it up!"